Japanese writers: Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Haruki Murakami and Murakami Ryu

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Now such Japanese writers as Haruki Murakami and Ryu Murakami are very popular, but the modern reader probably does not know that the history of the new Japanese prose in Russia did not begin with them. Its origins were the works of Akutagawa Ryunosuke. We will talk about these three personalities in this article. Since the former can rightfully be categorized as "Japanese contemporary writers", it is worth discussing Akutogawa's work and his two writings, Life of an Idiot and Gear Wheels, first.

Akutogawa Ryunosuke. Prose as a "purple flash". "Life of an Idiot"

For those who are more or less familiar with Japanese literature, it will not be news that the plot is not the most important place in it. Such, for example, is Basho's poetry. In essence, these are only observations rhymed in a certain way. And if we open, for example, "The Life of an Idiot", then we stumble upon exactly the same prose. The book is made up of very short stories. Only after reading them all, a complete picture emerges in the reader's head. The focus of Akutagawa's work is that it is the sameboth the sketches themselves and the big picture are valuable.

Akutagawa and Dostoyevsky. "Gears"

What is the connection between the prose of Ryunosuke and Fyodor Mikhailovich? Firstly, Akutagawa knew and loved Russian literature well, and secondly, the Japanese writer, like the Russian one, depicted the existence of a person in extreme and borderline situations, where life comes into contact with madness and death. The horror of Gears is also that it is autobiographical.

"Gears" and "The Life of an Idiot" are examples of the writer's dying prose. He died early, at the age of 35 he took a lethal dose of Veronal. Lost my nerves literally and figuratively. But this does not mean that his prose is interesting only to psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors, not at all. Akugatawa's prose will appeal to all those who are not indifferent to real, good literature and the ultimate, "damned" questions of human existence. And now it's time to talk about the topic "Japanese modern writers".

Haruki Murakami: "Wonderland without brakes and the end of the world"

Modern Japanese authors, although they have retained a certain national identity, have become very "Western": their works are predominantly plot-driven, which is reflected in our narrative.

Wonderland… is like a long fall down a rabbit hole. The protagonist is a specialist in a special kind of encryption called shuffling. The essence of the method is that the text is encoded through a story that exists only in the head of the shuffler,and it happens unconsciously. However, the professor-inventor of the method found out that all the specialists, except for the main character, died during the experiment. And the whole book the scientist tries to save him. To do this, they descend into the underworld, the passage to which opens in the professor's closet, meet terrifying creatures that spread chilling fear, flee from the flood slowly overtaking them, climb the rope ladder to the high tower.

And the main character decides to stay in the inner world of his head, which means the death of the body. This story unfolds in every second chapter of the book and at first it has nothing to do with the main plot.

There is a whole city in the hero's head, there is a high wall around it. The locals have this custom: to cut off the shadow of every incoming person. The hero gets a job as a librarian in this city. Its main function is to read old dreams placed in the skulls of dead animals.

No one can leave the city, because the wall is high, and the shadow lives separately from a person for no more than a week. But the main character, even finding a way out, is unable to leave this closed world, which will disappear if he remains alive.

These are the strange stories that modern Japanese writers prefer, then everything will be even "wonderful and strange", as L. Carroll said.

Ryu Murakami. "Children from the locker room"

Perhaps the most famous work of the author. A novel about two children. They were lucky enough to survive after their mothers left newborn babies in their cellsstorage. They are almost the same age, very similar and experience the same psychological problems: the fear of closed spaces and the difficulties associated with it.

Once these people were treated with the sounds of a pregnant woman's heartbeat, but then in the turmoil of their lives, they forgot this sound. But all his life he was looking for. It took them a lot to remember him. One brother had to live in an infected part of the city, where touching red-painted objects and surfaces promises a slow and painful death, and also to find the poisonous gas "datura" and poison the city of millions with it, sow chaos.

The second one had a long way to go: become a superstar, cut off the tip of his tongue, go crazy, inadvertently kill his own mother and go to jail. And all this just to realize that any mother gives her child a message: "Live! My heart beats for you."

Books by Japanese writers: some for thought, others for fun

For a reader who is far from philological delights, only one question is important about who to choose for reading in the evening. The answer suggests itself: depending on what a person wants to get from acquaintance with Japanese prose.

For example, contemporary authors presented here can be read on weekdays, after a tiring day at work. Despite the ornate plot, their works do not require intellectual effort from the reader. Accordingly, it is better to move Akutagawa to the weekend, when the reader's head will be fresh and receptive to the beauties of style. Last resortyou can get a notebook, (or a sheet of paper) on the cover of which it will be written: "A Japanese writer and a schedule for reading his works." If it is difficult for a person to make up his mind, let him try to follow the system in his self-education.